It's time for an intervention, Disney.
To its credit, Disney routinely sends its Imagineers and other entertainment leaders on research trips around the world. The details matter when creating immersive entertainment. The right patterns, textures, and lighting all work together to convince guests that they have entered the world of a story. Disney needs its designers to know, precisely, what elements they must reproduce in a new location when traveling to the places around the world that have inspired their new theme park story.
And so it was, and is, with "Coco." The Academy Award-winning 2017 Disney/Pixar film honored the culture of Mexico with its story of the power of family and music to overcome deceit and fear. Disney has brought that story into a new media with Plaza de Coco, a new dining experience on the Disney Cruise Line's Disney Treasure.
Yesterday, I told you about the work that Disney's creative teams put into researching Mexican culture for this project. [See The creators of 'Coco' talk about its next chapter.] That work has resulted in a convincing reimagining of the space occupied by Arendelle: A 'Frozen' Dining Adventure on sister ship Disney Wish. [See Why You Won't Want to Miss Disney's New 'Frozen' Dinner.]
Disney Treasure's Plaza Santa Cecilia feels like a giant version of the courtyard in a well-cared-for family restaurant that you can find in so many neighborhoods on either side of the border in Baja and "Alta" California. Disney's always-attentive rotational dining service emphasizes the feeling that you are in the care of family here. And it would not be a family celebration in a Mexican community without music. Disney delivers that with a delightful Mariachi performance, led by Miguel himself. Okay, Disney has aged up Miguel here in order to employ an adult performer for the role, but that's fine. One of the themes of Coco is that age and years do not matter when relationships endure.
Disney Treasure will sail seven-night itineraries, so guests will dine twice at Plaza de Coco during their voyage, experiencing a different show each night. The first night will feature the living members of the Rivera family. But our press preview cruise on the Treasure featured the second-night show, which includes Miguel's late great-great grandparents Héctor and Imelda in a Dia de Los Muertos celebration.
As I wrote earlier this week, the heart of a Disney Cruise is its live entertainment, and the mariachi at Plaza de Coco only boost the fleet's top-notch reputation for performers.
Okay, so why the need for an intervention? All seems well at Plaza de Coco. The evening starts so promising, with a walk past the ofrenda from the 2017 film, brought to life. As you reach your table, your waiter sets down chips and salsa in lieu of the cruise line's traditional bread service.
And then you taste that salsa.
Full disclosure: I could be the spokesperson for a GERD public education campaign. My personal esophageal health prevents me from eating, much less enjoying, food too high on the Scoville scale. So I appreciate culinary efforts to provide alternatives to spicy foods. If offered a choice of hot or mild salsa, I am choosing the mild, every time.
Despite what some social media influencers might have you believe, heat does not equal flavor. I have enjoyed tasty meals at many Mexican, Indian, and Thai restaurants that did not leave my eyes watering and my throat choking. Flavorful meals that do not injure sensitive diners are possible.
Yet Plaza de Coco offered the weakest, blandest salsa that I have tasted outside a little plastic squeeze packet. The guacamole appetizer was even more banal - smashed avocado watered down with weak lime juice, instead of the flavor revelation that good guac can be.
Much tastier red chicken enchiladas and beef birria empanada appetizers prove that Disney's kitchens can deliver flavorful Mexican cuisine. Serving the adobo sauce on the side of the empanada instead of soaking it might offend some, but I think that's a smart way to accommodate diners with sensitivities. Dip or dunk to your own tolerance.
But throughout our Disney trips, we have encountered meals whose flavor has been neutered, no doubt by managers beaten down by complaints from guests whose idea of spice extends from salt to pepper. I have seen the menus at too many of my favorite Disney restaurants swapped out for some combination of burgers and chicken strips because that is what a strong plurality, if not majority, of Disney guests seem to prefer. I understand that Disney is a business that must deliver what its customers want in order to endure.
Yet as a native Southern California who has lived the majority of his life in close community with the culture of Mexico, I gotta draw the line at messing with Coco. This is the place where Disney needs to stop preemptively surrendering. The food here does not need to set my mouth on fire, but it absolutely must make my taste buds sing.
The enchiladas did that. The empanada did that. But Plaza de Coco's chicken mole tasted like a chicken breast that only met its mole on the way to the table instead of simmering together for a fun date in the kitchen.
A small portion of dry carnitas was not saved by another serving of that same lame salsa and guac.
I get it. Disney is serving not for Californians or Mexicans seeking a taste of home and family, but for a mass market of guests whose standard for Mexican food is Taco Bell. But Disney did not become "Disney" simply by following the market. Disney has won generations of fans by creating experiences that people did not know they wanted until Disney delivered it to them.
I long for Disney to unleash its chefs to thrill its guests the way that Imagineers and Disney Live Entertainment teams get to do. Sure, keep the bland stuff as an option. Disney Cruise Line offers "lighter" entree options at every meal. Just let the culinary team loose to keep showing us the wonderful world of flavor across Disney's U.S. theme parks and cruises for those who want that, too. Disney, we are here for you.
Right, Disney fans? (Please?)
In the meantime, I would order that birria empanada for an appetizer and ask for the red chicken enchiladas as a main course. Then enjoy the amazing entertainment in Plaza Santa Cecilia for another great night on Disney Treasure.
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